Why Bother?

Unlocking DeFi’s role in the $23 trillion lending market.

The Exploding Lending Market

The global lending market is undergoing rapid expansion, with commercial lending projected to grow from $10.7 trillion to $23.25 trillion by 2032. Private credit, an alternative to traditional bank lending, is surging toward $3.5 trillion by 2028 demonstrating clear, increasing demand for more flexible, decentralized lending solutions. Despite this boom, access to capital remains constrained by centralized intermediaries, legacy credit systems, and rigid collateral requirements. This presents a massive opportunity for DeFi to reshape global lending by introducing permissionless, on-chain credit markets.

Limitations of Traditional Lending

Traditional lending relies on centralized institutions that dictate who gets access to credit and at what cost. Most loans today require government-issued assets, real-world collateral (RWA), or rigorous credit scoring—leaving vast portions of the global economy underserved.

Centralized Gatekeeping: Banks and financial institutions act as intermediaries, imposing strict lending requirements that exclude individuals and businesses without established credit histories or traditional assets.
Slow and Bureaucratic Processes: Loan approvals can take weeks or even months, requiring extensive documentation, third-party verification, and regulatory approvals that hinder timely access to capital.
High Costs and Interest Rates: Traditional lenders charge significant fees, including origination costs, interest rate spreads, and hidden charges that make borrowing expensive and inefficient.
Collateral Constraints: Borrowers often need to pledge tangible assets such as real estate, stocks, or government bonds, making it difficult for individuals with digital assets or alternative investments to access credit.
Exclusion of Emerging Markets and Underbanked Communities: Many regions, especially in developing economies, lack access to banking infrastructure, limiting financial inclusion and preventing millions from participating in credit markets.
Liquidity Fragmentation: Traditional lending markets are siloed by geography, regulation, and institutional restrictions, preventing global liquidity flow and limiting borrowers’ options to local providers.

DeFi is Not Immune to Elitism

DeFi was built to offer an open and permissionless alternative to traditional finance, but it has unintentionally developed its own form of exclusivity. Borrowing options are overwhelmingly reserved for blue-chip assets like ETH, BTC, and stablecoins. This restricts participation from a broad range of digital assets, particularly community-driven tokens, memecoins, and other highly liquid but unconventional assets. This selective approach mirrors the centralized bias seen in TradFi, where only ‘serious’ or institutionally recognized assets gain financial utility.

To create a truly decentralized and inclusive financial system, DeFi must expand its collateral spectrum, allowing a broader range of assets to be leveraged for liquidity. By doing so, DeFi can empower users across all crypto ecosystems, creating new opportunities for lending, borrowing, and capital efficiency that go beyond the traditional financial playbook.

The $23 Trillion Opportunity for DeFi

Decentralized lending can capture a chunk of the massive global credit market by offering alternative sources of capital with more inclusive collateralization models. While existing DeFi lending protocols—such as Aave and Compound—have proven the model works, they’re only the tip of the iceberg. The next phase of growth requires a Uniswap moment for lending: an open, permissionless system where any asset can serve as collateral, expanding access to liquidity at scale.

What is IMF?

IMF is a decentralized lending protocol designed to provide on-chain credit to underserved assets by providing permissionless lending markets. By leveraging a broader range of assets as collateral, IMF provides a platform that allows users to access liquidity without having to sell. It means more participants—from individual token holders to entire communities—to tap into decentralized credit, adding fuel to the DeFi fire.

By embracing a more inclusive collateral model, IMF has the potential to capture lending demand far beyond TradFi’s limitations, accelerate DeFi adoption, and integrate blockchain-based credit into the fabric of the $23 trillion lending market. This is about creating an open, trustless financial system where liquidity flows freely, credit is accessible to all, and DeFi becomes a fundamental pillar of global finance.